At Programme level you will find comprehensive financial management features, accessed within the Investment tab:
In summary, the Programme Manager will use these to:
- Define the overall budget of the Programme.
- Allocate this budget to Projects within the Programme, as well as reserving some budget to be spent at Programme level.
- Monitor how budgets are consumed, with full visibility of variances to forecast and actual totals recorded by all Projects within the Programme.
- Capture forecast and actual cost for Programme level spend.
All three features are available here and can be accessed by expanding the menu items shown.
Define Programme Budget
This feature provides spreadsheet-like functionality to define the Programme budget. Budget figures are attached to configurable Funding Sources and broken down into time periods.
The time window of periods shown is defined by the Start and Finish date of the Programme, as defined in the Programme’s Summary tab.
Columns
The following columns are available in the grid (and can be individually shown or hidden via the column selector on the right). All are time-phased, with monthly values at the lowest level.
(Yellow highlight denotes input field)
|
|
Comment |
| Budget | Budget entered at Funding Source level within Budget Category, calculating total budget for Budget Category as well as Programme total budget. |
| Unallocated | Amount remaining unallocated. |
| Allocated |
Total budget allocated to projects (and to Programme level spend) using feature explained in the Allocate Programme Budget section. |
| Forecast | Total Forecast cost of all projects in the Programme (as well as Programme spend forecast, see the Programme Level Spend section). |
| Actual | Total Actual cost of all projects in the Programme (as well as Programme spend actual, see the Programme Level Spend section). |
| Cost | Represents the total ‘Cost to Complete’ of all projects in the Programme (as well as Programme spend, see the Programme Level Spend section). |
| Var. (Allocated/ Forecast) | Variance between Budget Allocated and Forecast. |
| Var. (Budget/Actual) | Variance between Budget and Actual. |
| Var. (Budget/Forecast) | Variance between Budget and Forecast. |
| Var. (Forecast/Actual) | Variance between Forecast and Actual. |
Maintaining Programme Budgets
To enter budget figures, expand the Budget Category to reveal the list of Funding Sources, providing the detail lines for budget figure entry. Enter amounts at annual level or expand the time phases at the top to quarterly or monthly level as required.
Monitoring Budget Allocation
As you share out the Programme budget to projects in the Allocate Programme Budget section (see the Allocate Programme Budget section), this will increase the Allocated total and decrease the Unallocated total.
Use the Column Selector to show these columns. If a negative Unallocated amount is shown (in red), then the budget allocated to projects exceeds that of the Programme for the given budget category/time period.
Allocate Programme Budget
Expand this section to see a list of projects within the Programme and allocate to them a share of the programme budget.
You will be able to see what Forecasts and Actuals have been recorded by these Projects and monitor variances to the budget you have allocated.
This section of the screen interacts with the top section as explained above – as you enter Alloc. Budget figures in this section, this will update the Unallocated/Allocated totals in the top section.
Please note: Projects can only be allocated budget via their Programme, therefore all Projects must be associated with a Programme. If projects are not governed by a Programme in your actual implementation or process, then create a ‘dummy’ Programme simply for the purpose of budget allocation.
Overview
Below shows the feature in ‘Pop-up’ mode, which is the recommended way of working with it as it works best on a larger canvas (see also Navigation and User Interface).
If possible, drag it to a second screen and view it side-by-side with the Define Programme Budget feature described in the Define Programme Budget section. This allows you to monitor Un-/Allocated Budget totals which will be updated as you allocated budgets to projects in this grid.
Columns (Figures)
The following columns are available in the grid (and can be individually shown or hidden via the column selector on the right). All are time-phased, with monthly values at the lowest level.
(Yellow highlight denotes input field)
|
|
Comment |
| Alloc. Budget | Budget amount allocated to the project (or Programme spend). Entering or changing this amount will reduce or increase the associated Un-/Allocated total in the top grid (for the same Budget Category and time phase). |
| Forecast |
Forecast cost of the project, see Programme spend forecast, and Programme Level spend (investment Tab). |
| Actual | Actual cost of the project, see Programme spend Actual, and Programme Level spend (Investment Tab). |
| Cost | Represents the total ‘Cost to Complete’ of the Project (or Programme spend). |
| Var. (Allocated/Forecast) | Variance between Budget Allocated and Forecast. |
| Var. (Budget/Actual) | Variance between Alloc. Budget and Actual. |
| Var. (Budget/Forecast) | Variance between Alloc, Budget and Forecast. |
| Var. (Forecast/Actual) | Variance between Alloc Forecast and Actual. |
Columns (Group By)
You can change the grouping of this grid by dragging any of these columns into the top left area:
- Project
- Budget Category
- Stage
This is useful if you want to see totals by any of these groups.
Example: To answer the question ‘How much budget have I allocated to Projects at a particular stage?’ apply the Stage group.
You can also apply multiple groups, e.g. Stage and Project:
Filtering of ‘Group By’ Columns
Rather than Grouping, you can apply filters to the Project, Budget Category or Stage columns (note: filters do not work for columns currently applied as group).
A filter is applied by clicking next to the column name on the button (which appears as you hover over the column name).
When a filter is applied, the filter icon is shown next to the column name.
In the example below we have grouped the grid by Project and applied a filter to the Stage column. This makes it convenient to review budgets just for those projects at the selected stage.
Assessing Alloc. Budget vs Forecast
The easiest way to assess the budget needs of projects is to expose the ‘Var. (Budget/Forecast)’ column.
Any amounts shown in red identify a shortfall, i.e. a project with a forecast that requires further budget to be allocated.
Time Window Enforcement
This Allocate Programme Budget feature recognizes the time windows of each Project in the grid (see also Resource Demand, Time Window/Move Project).
It will not allow you to enter Alloc. Budget amounts in time periods that are outside of a Project’s time window.
The example below illustrates two Projects that have different time windows open for entry of Alloc. Budget columns (driven by their respective Start and Finish dates):
Programme Level Spend
This feature has the same functionality as the Project Investment feature described in Investment (Project), capturing forecast and actual costs by cost categories and broken down into time periods.
However, here the cost figures relate to the Programme itself, i.e. money spent at Programme level (e.g. to cover the cost of Programme management).